I've starting modeling the neighbourhood in 3D (using Sketchup and Google Earth - both free and easy to use software) - here's a shot of our little piece of Collingwood, before, and after...

Click on image to see larger

• Road Energy System®
• Rainwater Tanks
• Bike Network
• Earth (or Labyrinth) Cooling
• Planting
• Program
• Solar Hot water heating and PV Array
• Worm Farm & Black Water

Below is a kind of check list of dimensions which are useful for urban design and planning projects.

These numbers & areas could be used to layout a sustainable township from scratch, but they're also useful for me for this project because it gives me a set of principles to work with. For example - if I want to propose that Charlotte Street be transformed into a linear park I need to be able to justify open space amenity in that location in relation to the rest of the city.

I will also use these principles to work out where the boundaries of 'my neighbourhood' should be.

Some of the figures below come from principles of New Urbanism, some from Superbia, some from Christopher Alexander.

From a Pattern Language - Alexander:

Metropolis
Ideal downtown area which can provide "magic of the city" without over-population and urban sprawl issues.

• Max 1.6km wide (but can be long)
• 300 000 people within 5-23km of each other
• Shopping streets – one for every 10 000 people; 2.9km apart
• Markets of many shops - one for every 4000 people; 1.8km
• Corner groceries one for every 1 000 people; 0.8km apart

• 1.6 to 3.2 km across
• Surrounded by a ring road
• Slow moving local traffic and bikes within ring road
  
• One way parallel streets for connecting traffic (very few cross streets)

• 400m to 3.2km across
• About 30 HA
• Maximum 10 0000 people
• Densities of 125 people per HA will support a promenade within 5-10 minute walk (460m) (Collingwood density is 50 people per HA)

• 50-400m across

• 90 - 275m across with about 400-500 residents

• 8-12 households (about 30-50 people)
• can be as few as 3 households

• 10-20 work places

• People should commute a maximum 20-30 minutes

• 500-1500 amount of people who can ‘rally together’

• 5 minute walk (400m radius) based on new urbanist ‘walkability’ principle
  

• 25-40 houses – optimal number of houses where occupants can get to know each other well and share facilities

• 14m – the distance where you can recognise an individual
  

I was reading Dave Pollards addictive blog "How to Change the World" again just now, and he writes; "We don't need 'leadership' or 'leaders'. What we need is experimenters".

I think what he suggests makes sense - a leader is supposed to know the answers, they're expected to be wiser and more experienced than the rest of us - whereas an experimenter doesn't need to know anything, an experimenter can be anyone, an experimenter can focus on questions; and it's only by asking questions that we can grow, and that we can achieve real change.

As Bruce Mau exhorts in "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth":

• collaborators: they don't do anything alone
• facilitators and coaches: they help others to learn and discover how to do things better
• demonstrators: more than just communicators, they show how it works and what it means
• ideators: they imagine what's possible, and tell stories to bring those ideas to life
• innovators: they take those good ideas and realize them, make them real
• researchers: they study what's been done, in nature, by other cultures and communities, and what's needed, and spread that knowledge
• connectors: they bring people together who were meant to work together
• model-builders: they design and build something that can be understood, replicated and adapted by others
• founders: they start new things -- enterprises, communities, different ways to do important things; they build something new rather than criticizing what exists

As I write this I am sitting alone at my desk in my studio. This is not ideal! The work I’m doing in this blog is still useful; as a case study – and as a way of answering my four research questions, but really these objectives should be generated by discussions between a group of people.

At the very least by a group of professionals (urban designers, architects, planners, ecologists, environmental scientists and engineers) but ideally the work should be done by a group of residents, workers and other stakeholders.

Seeing as though it’s only me, we can’t go through the process of workshopping these ideas; we can’t argue and discuss their merits and then reach an agreement together. So instead I will post some interim ‘Urban Design Objectives’ – to operate in lieu of a ‘Neighbourhood Vision Statement’

A Neighbourhood Vision Statement could be generated from discussing the following questions:

1. Where are we now? (the current situations, issues & values, background and features of the neighbourhood)

2. Where are we going? (What the neighbourhood might look like in the future if we follow the current course)

3. Where do we want to be? (Develop a preferred scenario, what Chiras et al call a “realistic-idealistic” picture)

4. How do we get there? Neighbours formulate an Action Plan, delegate responsibilities, and agree on timetables for action and ‘benchmarks’ for progress.

...

Ok, so - the realistic/idealistic picture in question 3 forms the basis of the Neighbourhood Vision Statement, and is what I am attempting to create now in this post.

(for more information about this process, have a look at Chapter 3 of “Superbia!: 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods”)

I’ve divided the following Urban Design guidelines into 10 categories based on those of the Guiding Principles of One Planet Living.

1. Zero Carbon
Our climate is changing because of human-induced build up of CO2 in the atmosphere

• Reduce the block’s carbon emissions to zero by 2020;
• Maximise the block’s ability to generate its own power;
• Minimise the energy needs of each dwelling, and of the neighbourhood in general;
• Maximise use of passive heating and systems;
• Seek relationships with individuals, communities and service providers which extend and strengthen practices of ecologically sustainable design, construction and behaviours;
• Ensure all sustainable interventions are designed and maintained so that they function as intended and within budget;
• Ensure ongoing ESD information, education and support is available for new and existing residents;
• Maximise the ability for both the local and global community to access to the knowledge and experience of the blocks residents, and also to the successes and failures of the project; &
• Examine & modify unsustainable lifestyles, consumption and behaviours.

• Reduce waste to zero by 2020;
• Maximise waste treated on-site;
• Allow adequate space to store and facilitate waste recycling;
• Reuse existing facades and structures when building new buildings or renovating; &
• Select recycled materials, or materials which can be reused or which reduce waste.

• Increase access to and use of public transport;
• Increase use of bicycles & walking (& other sustainable transport);
• Minimise private car ownership and use;
• Provide pleasant and convenient movement, seating and bicycle parking/storage for cyclists and pedestrians; &
• Increase density where possible without destruction of the existing urban and community fabric, in order to reduce ‘urban sprawl’ and maximise use of sustainable transport.

• Maximise use of existing built form;
• Use recycled low VOC materials, and avoid materials which have a negative impact on air quality or emit chemicals and pollutants harmful to people or the ecosystem. Consider the whole lifecycle of the material and toxic affects during manufacture, during construction, during the materials intended use and maintenance, and during disposal or recycling;
• Maximise use of recycled, locally produced and sustainable materials; &
• Design and build to minimise the use of chemical cleaning agents and to discourage mould growth.

• Encourage consumption of locally produced and sustainable food; &
• Ensure a range of fresh locally produced food is available within a 5 minute walk.

• Reduce the blocks use of ‘mains water’ to zero by 2020;
• Consider ways in which the block may become a net producer of potable water;
• Minimise rainwater & pollution runoff into stormwater;
• Retrofit houses to maximise water efficiency;
• Modify behaviour to reduce water usage; &
• Reduce the water consumption of gardens and outdoor areas.

• Maximise the quality of the habitat provided for indigenous flora and fauna;
• Maximise areas of soft landscaping, including on top of buildings and on balconies;
• Maximise indigenous planting;
• Minimise light pollution;
• Maximise areas of permeable paving, and reduce overall area of impermeable surfaces to reduce runoff and pollution in waterways; &
• Capture run-off on-site before it enters storm water system.

• Increase number & richness of relationships between neighbours;
• Maximise opportunities for neighbours to meet and talk;
• Protect/change and enrich local identity and character; &
• Create opportunities for residents to volunteer their time, and to work for the benefit of the community.

• Increase awareness of the relationship between our consumption and economic status & lifestyle of the people who produce the goods in the developing world;
• Retain and circulate money within local economies; &
• Maximise prevalence and stability of small businesses within the neighbourhood.

• Create situations which encourage people to question their assumptions of what makes them happy, and what makes a ‘good neighbourhood’;
• Create opportunities for residents to meet the needs for live, work and play within the community, and without the ‘schism’ created by long commutes;
• Improve the qualities of social relationships and mutual support;
• Embody processes of localised, democratic participation in community life;
• Provide safe places for children to play in public space; &
• Increase size or value of public & communal space.

1. What does a sustainable neighbourhood look like?
2. How does a sustainable neighbourhood work?
3. What are the basic design features of a sustainable neighbourhood?
4. How can we move towards sustainable neighbourhoods from where we are now?

to borrow a turn of phrase & proposal structure used so well by Matt Fisher in his proposal for a publication dealing with Sustainable Cities, 2005.

Recently I decided to follow the instruction "Think Global and Act Local", and to that end I have started to try and change my buying behavior (local produce, buy less, buy services instead of things), and my living style (shorter showers, recycling, drink tap water instead of bottled etc) and also started to think about what we could do to our (rented) house to reduce our energy and water usage.

I'm an Urban Designer, so when I think about our house, I naturally begin to think about the relationship with the other things around it - the street outside, the laneway behind, the stormwater system, the street trees, the local park & my neighbours houses.

From both and ecological and urban design perspective - it makes sense to think this way. Because cities and ecologies are both systems, and when you're dealing with systems it doesn't help you much to focus solely on one element within the system, what is important in the relationships between the elements.

So thinking about it that way - my house is literally connected to a series of systems; the road network, power, gas and electricity systems, stormwater and drainage systems. My neighbours and I share the problems of pollutants from the two major roadways nearby, our cars spend most of the day and night beside each other on the street, our oranges and teabags probably travel half way around the world on the same shipping container, get loaded onto the same truck and delivered in the same box to our local supermarket.

We are also connected in less physical ways; by council and community infrastructure, by cultural events and attitudes, and by personal relationships (my family have only been living here for a few months, but Jo and Joanne; the couple that own this house have lived here for 16 years, and they have strong relationships with dozens of households in this neighbourhood).

It makes sense then to expand my thinking past the boundaries of my own house in order to think effectively about achieving a higher level of sustainability. At the same time it seems to me that the best way to achieve change is not to worry about what everyone else is doing and "heal thyself" - because, lets face it, that is hard enough. And in fact, it's only ever by changing yourself, that you can ever change or affect anything else.

Ok, so that leaves me stuck between a rock and a hard place really...

Perhaps the solution is to try and find a middle ground between trying to deal with a whole system or large scale series of interrelated systems and thinking about only me and my house. The secret is to identify a mini-system which is manageable in some sense - that I can get my head around, and maybe hope to affect in some way.

I'm going to define 'a block', which I'll think of as my neighbourhood. Of course I'm not trying to over simplify, I know that these systems and relationships can't be diced up into neat units like that, but I think even Christopher Alexander would approve of finding a focus area, or a defining a 'problem'.

I'll define two areas on two separate scales - a 400m five minute walk radius (so loved by New Urbanists) and a 100m radius centred around my house. I'll draw the boundaries in the middle of the housing blocks rather than in the middle of the road - because I want to cater for the fact that over the parked car relationships are more common in my neighbourhood that over the back fence (or back lane) relationships.

Ok, so here below is my subject area - my neighbourhood, my little part of Collingwood - including Hotham, Gold, Charlotte and Wellington Streets. And my project is to try and design a series of interventions which can be taken up by residents or retrofitted to make this one block ecologically sustainable.

In the next post I'll define some clearer & more detailed objectives. And also take a closer look at my neighbourhood - and maybe do a kind of site or context analysis.